Fellow-citizens, above your national, tumultous joy, I hear the mournful wail of millions, whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are to-day rendered more intolerable by the jubilant shouts that reach them.
Douglass contrasts the celebratory noise of the Fourth of July with the amplified suffering of enslaved people, whose chains feel heavier amidst the national joy.
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They cannot be coaxed or driven to vote with their enemies against their friends.
None now denies the ability of the colored race to acquire knowledge of anything which can be communicated to the human understanding by letters.
Still another ground of hope I find in the fact that colored men are strong in their gratitude to benefactors, and firm in their political convictions.